Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert Pat G

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Brandi wrote at 2009-11-06 07:20:58
When I was a teenager, I didn't see anything wrong with abortion. My brother started dating a woman (who he is married to now) and she was trying to get to know me and my sister so she took us aside and chatted with us for awhile. She eventually told us about when she was a teenager, she had an abortion because she got pregnant the first time she had sex. She was 15, and had the abortion. Years later when she was dating my brother... she told us that every night when she would lay in her bed... she would count the days that her baby would be old. She would wonder if it would've been a boy or a girl... What he/she would've been like... and how her life would've been different if she had that kind of love in it. I can say with all honesty, that it is NOT a question of morality. It's a question of sanity. She hated herself for what she'd done, and went on to say that she didn't think she deserved to have children after what she'd done. She now does have two beautiful children, but her regret hasn't faded away for the one she gave up. Whether you're morally or ethically okay with the decision, it's very hard to cope with a decision of that sort. It's not even that I necessarily think that it's immoral for a woman to be curious about having an abortion... but I do think it's immoral on a doctor's behalf to perform one knowing the emotional consequences it can and probably will have on a woman. They take an oath first to "Do no harm," and I can't imagine how performing an abortion wouldn't violate that oath.



Then again, I regard all life. I found a stray cat and took her into my home... she became pregnant before I was able to have her fixed. After 36 hours of attempting labor, she was unable to have the kittens. A trip to the vet revealed that (being a stray) someone had kicked her so hard in the rear that it collapsed her birth canal. We told them that even if we had to work out a payment plan, they needed to do whatever they could to get the kittens out safely and help the mother cat Lola. Hours later we had one baby kitten named Bella (the only one that survived. She almost didn't make it, but they worked really hard to keep her alive. Two years later we're still trying to pay off the debt we accrued... but even if you're broke, life is definitely worth preserving. With it being so easily taken away from us... why would we ever choose that for ourselves or anyone else? I don't even believe in the death penalty or any form of killing or death. You don't have to be religious... I'm really not. I just see the value in all things.

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